Ohio resident physicians in Emergency Medicine are getting a new taste of the ER, through virtual reality (VR). These doctors in training at OhioHealth’s Grant Medical Center are jumping into the emergency environment through recorded scenarios viewed on the HTC Vive VR platform.

As part of Ohio University’s Immersive Media Initiative to increase VR use in realistic situations, this program drops residents right into the middle of a virtual trauma bay. The users can walk around a virtual ER, and view various medical scenarios in stereoscopic 3D. Each environment is created through the use of multiple 360 degree cameras with additional audio recordings, recorded with consent of patients during real-life encounters. These are then stitched together to create a full VR environment, viewable through the Vive. They currently have 3 scenarios, and plan for creating a full library of VR environments to better equip residents for critical care situations. While users can roam the virtual emergency rooms, the experiences are otherwise non-interactive, and similar to 360 videos.

VR is being used increasingly throughout healthcare, for pain management, mental health, medical education, and more. It’s certainly a good fit for use with resident education. The ability to provide an immersive, first-person view of the high-energy environment of the emergency room is a valuable tool for trainees. We will likely see this being utilized more frequently in medical student and resident education nationwide.

Author:

Brian Chau, MD

Brian Chau is a Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R) physician. He practices at the VA Loma Linda Healthcare System, and is an assistant professor at Loma Linda University Medical Center in California. Drawn to the field of PM&R for its focus on helping patient's improve their functional abilities, his interest include the use of virtual reality in rehabilitation and mobile health technology. Outside of medicine, he enjoys spending time with family, hiking, and fishing.

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